What the Hell with Hockey

after watching the bball game on my computer, i just clicked on the gamecast for the hockey team to find that they are losing 4-2 to a 1-8-1 Bowling Green team!!! Not too happy right now...but about to head to South U bars so that'll change

was ahead 2-1 going into the 3rd. Gave up 3 , 2 of them had to be almost within a minute.

17-6 outscored in the last 5

first time in 21 years, 5 game losing streak

As a BG student who works at BG's home games with the athletic department I can tell you one thing.

BG SUCKS AT HOCKEY.

They stink in every fashion of the word except for the big black guy Samuelsson. We are bad bad bad. During the football game tonight we were joking about what the final score would be. We predicted a solid 5-1 loss would be the outcome.

What the heck.....

ps. I'll be working the game in Toledo tomorrow for BG but cheering for the Blue.

I found out you could watch the game online through mgoblue.com. Being stuck on the west coast, I very rarely get a Michigan hockey fix so I was super pumped and tuned in with the Blue up 2-1 going into the third. Then BGSU scored three goals in less than three minutes (one on a 5-3 and one on a regular power play after two pretty weak penalty calls). The announcer said it is the fifth straight loss, which hasn't happened since 1988.

What gives? I don't know enough about putting together a college hockey team (don't know enough about youth hockey to follow recruiting intelligently) or things like in game strategy and line combinations (since I grew up in the south) to diagnose the situation. Is there any explanation for the team's struggles? Would really like to hear from our resident hockey experts so I can have a more appropriate response to watching the team (rather than just scaring my girlfriend by shouting terrible things about the referee).

We just looked slow all night. Don't know what that could be a result of, but we were a step off the puck or away from making the plays we needed to in order to get the win.

Here's hoping things get better, and soon...

It's clear to me that the solution is to fire Red Berenson after we fire Rich Rodriguez. As soon as John Beilein loses a game we should fire him, too.

This is Michigan and losing games is UNACCEPTABLE

This is the sloppiest Michigan team I've ever witnessed. And tonight, we compounded our sloppy play by not showing any heart whatsoever, getting beat to almost every loose puck.

Also, while this didn't really cost us much this time around, Hogan really needs to figure out when to leave the crease for the puck and how to handle it properly. He caused me several heart attacks with some downright stupid decisions. It's like watching a freshman Al Montoya, only a highly incompetent freshman Al Montoya.

hogan has been awful the last few games at home. he allowed 5,4,3 and 4 goals at home to go with something i figure to be a .800-.850 save percentage. 16/20 tonight i believe

the offense has no idea what the f they are doing. we are rarely rarely a threat to get a solid scoring chance.

Sometimes I get the feeling that the team has peaked to early. The pressure and expectations seem to get to them in the playoffs. It may be fun to watch the team struggle early, gel at the end of the season, and "overachieve" in the playoffs.

More than most sports, hockey seems to be a game where momentum is extremely important. Hopefully, they pick the right time to get "hot" this season.

New to the board, but I had to sign up and comment on this.

I absolutely don't understand what's going on. The hockey team was supposed to be strong returning all their "players" except Pulashaj (sp?). It has to be a chemistry thing because the talent is there. It's always there on this hockey team.

The unfortunate thing is that in the past I've always been able to resort to hockey to lift my spirits after a disappointing football season/game. Doesn't seem to be the case this year.

Ferris 8
OSU 1

http://www.uscho.com/box/?date=20091120&vis=osu&home=fsu&gender=m

To chime in (though I am a huge fan but by no means an expert), this team is lagging in every phase of the game.

The goaltending has been questionable; the defense is sloppy, out of position, and makes poor clearing attempts; and the offense is doing zip to make a great pass to score a goal. This team is not getting contributions.

Compounded by the fact that they look as if they are skating in molasses, and turning the puck over an inifinite number of times. They've lolly-gagged through games the past two years, I am at a loss as well.

I was at the game tonight and was at the game at Munn last Saturday, and I am dumbfounded on how sloppy they are playing. Defense was supposed to be the strength of this team this year, but it's not looking like it. I hope being the preseason favorite to win the CCHA hasn't gone to their heads. Anyway, good thing it's still early, and it's a good thing we have that man behind the bench who can coach like a mofo. I'll be in Toledo for the game with plans on celebrating this team awakening from their coma... until then, happy beverage time.

No sense of urgency by a lot of players at times tonight, and the longer this streak goes, the less faith they have in one another. They're flustered because they can't anticipate anything, as they don't know where their teammates are going to be.

They're over-thinking plays and coughing up the puck, or not thinking at all and coughing up the puck. A majority of passes are into the skates, or worse yet into clogged lanes. They can't break the puck out of their zone. Shooting when the pass is a better bet and vice versa. Shots are extremely low percentage. Too much standing around on the powerplay waiting for something to happen versus working hard to get open. They keep getting crossed up with eachother by not reading, communicating, or anticipating (there it is again). Way too often 3, 4, or sometimes even all 5 guys are drawn to the puck.

Turnbull, Miller, and Fardig would be a blessing right now to dig those pucks out of the corner. We're missing that grit with few exceptions. It's hard for dump and chase to be a good percentage play if you don't have the bodies to get it done (not that I've ever been a fan of sending 3 deep, although I do understand the puck possession philosophy).

I noticed quite often tonight that they were either holding on to the puck too long, or dumping it off too quick. It's become the fine line of trying to step up and just make plays as an individual to get something started, or just hoping that your linemate is in a position to make a play himself. Unfortunately it just resulted in more turnovers than anything else.

Defensively and in goal there are plenty of faults as well, but until this team can find an offensive rhythm and some sort of chemistry, there's not going to be many wins to be had. For better or worse, Michigan's never been the team to win games of the 2-1 variety. That's surely not able to start right now.

Tonight was the worst yet this season. The only thing I could get even moderately excited for was Robbie's goal, because he's been working hard and it was a beautiful shot. Oh, and Samuels-Thomas gets props for turning the playmaker tonight.

The current misfortune:
4-7-0 Overall, 2-5-0 CCHA

By the books:
5 consecutive losses: 1988-89, 0-6 11/26/88-12/16/88
4 consecutive home losses: 1988-89, 0-5 11/19/88-1/7/89
Winless in 5 games: 1998-99, 0-3-2 (0-4-4 1/23/99-2/20/99)
7 losses in first 11 games: 1986-87, 3-8-0 (4-14-0 before 5th win)

Looking to next weekend's *possibilities*:
Winless in 6 home games: 1988-89, 0-4-2 (0-7-2 10/21/88-1/7/89)
6 consecutive home losses: 1941-42 (0-8 12/6/41-2/28/42)

OUCH.

Wake up, gentlemen.